


Charmingly Grouped

by millernumber1



Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-19
Packaged: 2017-11-21 15:43:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/599439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/millernumber1/pseuds/millernumber1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Various bits and bobs of fic exploring various relationships in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Email Day

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, there. I'm not much of a ficcer, preferring to review or write meta on my blog. But recent events in the fandom have led me to actually have feelings about things that I want to express in fic form. So, here are a few Bennet sister/other thing ficlets.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something Jane likes to do.

Jane wakes to the insistent beepling of her phone. When she’d originally chosen it, right after she’d moved to LA, it had reminded her of calm, happy watery sounds. Sometimes, though, when she stays up far too late worrying about her sisters, it was hard to wake up to anything. Maybe she should look into cheery birdsong ringtones. Jane is a big fan of birds, and one regret she had in moving to a more urban environment was the lack of variety in birdsongs when the weather was nice enough to sleep with her windows open.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts and sweep her hair out of her eyes, Jane swung her legs off her bed. As she went about her morning rituals, she hummed a bit - then, realizing she’s gotten her phone alarm stuck in her head, smiles and finds it happy again. When she’s ready for her day, she gets out her cereal, milk, and orange juice, and sets up her laptop next to her bowl and cup. Today is her email day, as she thinks of it. She doesn’t have quite the resources to send full-fledged care packages every week, and Lizzie and Lydia are home now, anyway, so it might be a bit odd. But everybody likes getting things in the mail, and she smiles to herself, thinking of the bits of odds and ends she’d found browsing around and shopping that she’d mailed to Lydia and Lizzie yesterday

Anyway, today is email day. Jane takes a bite of her cereal, takes a drink of juice, and then opens up her email. She always emails every member of her family at least once a week, unless it’s more often - because sometimes she just had to tell Lizzie something she’d read about, or show Lydia a picture she’d found, or tell her dad about the coolest bonsai tree she’d seen at the botanical gardens, or assure her mom that she had eaten a great dinner last night.

But on email day, Jane has a set pattern. She’s noticed that she definitely tends to email Lizzie the most - which she tries to offset, but sometimes that’s the way things are. So, to avoid favoritism, she emails her family in order descending by age. Every now and then, she mixes things up and goes age order up, which she thinks makes Lydia happy, because the responses to those emails, though still mostly “omg ty u r teh best” seem to be...slightly better spelled?

Anyway, today is a normal day. She writes to her dad, telling him about the audiobook she’s listening to on her commute - something a bit out of her comfort zone, but she saw him reading it last time she was home, and thought it would be nice to talk about with him. To her mother, she gives all the news, though perhaps avoiding some of the very nice young men at work and on the metro who she’s gotten to know over the months she’s been here. She doesn’t see a future with them, and thinks it would be unkind to encourage her mother in thinking there might be some. Lizzie gets a chatty, comfy email, with a few photos and links of outfits she’s worn, a couple of books she checked out at the library on her recommendation, and, of course, a comment or two on the video blogs. She doesn’t quite have the time to watch them all, but she’s working on it, and she enjoys seeing Lizzie working so hard and accomplishing so much. Lydia she does tell about all the guys at work - partly because she knows it makes Lydia feel better about her social life, and partly to enjoy her baby sister’s energetic responses. There’s something so fun about how vigorously Lydia pursues things.

Emails done, cereal eaten, juice drunk, dishes rinsed and put in the dishwasher, Jane heads out the door. There’s something new to see and someone knew to greet, and she wouldn’t want to miss that, would she?


	2. Tummy Kisses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane's sunny origins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you might notice, I rather like Jane Bennet. Actually, this is kind of a thing I've had since I was seventeen and read Pride and Prejudice three times in a month. I think Jane is the best, even though I'm much more judgmental, like Lizzy. These pieces are at least partially a huge admiration of Laura Spencer's portrayal of Jane, much as I also love Susanna Harker and Rosamund Pike's portrayals of the character.

Jane Bennet was born with the sun shining. Though the common misconception that Jane was born singing a ballad with woodland creatures coming to nuzzle her fuzzy red head is just that - a misconception - it certainly was a nice day.

Jane was two when her mother told her that she wasn’t to be jealous, but there was a new baby sister coming. Puzzled - why on earth would she be jealous? - Jane immediately began a daily practice of running to her mother, throwing her tiny arms around her waist, and kissing her tummy gently. It was funny how little Lizzie got so big inside that tummy - Jane hoped it didn’t bother Mommy as much as it seemed from her conversations. Sometimes she wished she was strong enough to carry Mommy, so her back wouldn’t ache so much and her feet wouldn’t be so swollen. Jane likes Mommy’s feet - she likes to squish them with her fingers, since her Mommy says that makes them feel “a tad better, though I’m sure not because of anything your father has done.”

When Lizzie is born, Jane revels in a tiny, dark haired person she can cuddle and hold (while Mommy is watching) on the couch. She’s transferred her practice of kissing her mother’s tummy to kissing Lizzie’s hair - being very careful not to push the funny soft spot on her head. Jane doesn’t think there could be a happier person than someone who has a beautiful baby sister and two wonderful parents.

When Jane was five, her mother told Lizzie not to be jealous. Jane immediately ran to her mother - a bit more carefully now, since she was a big girl and had to set an example - but the kiss she pressed to her mother’s tummy was just as happy. Lizzie isn’t as much of a hugger or a kisser - she hugs Jane every now and then, but what she really likes is to watch Jane practice her reading or work with Jane’s letter blocks. Jane thinks Lizzie is so smart - and she hopes that her next sister will be just as smart and beautiful.

Lydia’s hair is much lighter than Jane or Lizzie’s. She’s also much noisier - she lets the world know immediately when things don’t go her way - or when she’s happy - or pretty much anytime. Which is not to say that Lizzie isn’t vocal. She most definitely lets people know what she thinks. But there’s something so pure about Lydia’s expressions of desire, joy, or rage, that Jane can’t help but want to protect her. She helps Lizzie hold the tiny, squirmy baby on the couch - something Lizzie isn’t quite as keen on, much as they both love their new addition. So it’s often Jane holding Lydia on the couch, while Lizzie makes block words for them both.

Jane hopes that they can be this way forever. She wraps baby Lydia tightly in her arms, carefully disentangling her long hair from her sister’s strong fingers - so strong and cute. She praises Lizzie’s latest word - “Lydia” - and grins madly as Lizzy, uncharacteristically, jumps up from her blocks, runs over to them both on the couch, and kisses them both quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not quite happy with my inability to find a closing, but there you go. Hopefully as I go on they'll get better.


	3. Hugs and Lizzie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lizzie's not much for hugs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, Lizzie. There's so much to balance with her.

It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a Lizzie Bennet rang out!

Actually, she really was born on a dark and rather rainy evening, though her father assures her that her mother’s stories of tornadoes and lightning strikes are more than a bit fabricated. Regardless of how severe the weather was, she seemed fine with it, only squalling a couple of times when startled, mostly content to find the food and then sleep.

Lizzie doesn’t really remember much until she was two, except for vague, warm memories of a quiet, gentle smile topped by red hair. She does remember squirming out of Jane’s lap when she’s two, insisting that she’s old enough to sit by herself. Jane smiles at her, but there’s something a bit sad about her the way her eyes tilt down at Lizzie, so she sits back down in Jane’s lap. Jane immediately squeezes her but agrees that Lizzie should sit beside her, like the big girl she is.

Charlotte also comes into her memories around this time - a quiet girl with a rarely seen but gorgeous smile. Lizzie loves Charlotte - running to her to show her the latest book her father has given her (usually a dry Sandra Boynton book with hilarious rhymes and inimicable cartoons). Charlotte always gets the jokes, even if she did sometimes want to hold the book more than Lizzie was quite comfortable with.

Lizzie’s a bit confused when her mother tells her not to be jealous of her coming baby sister. She knows her mother will love them all equally, and probably complain about them all equally (though sometimes she wonders what her mother’s complaining about when Jane is the cause - after all, isn’t it nice that Jane has put away everyone’s dishes? So what if it was Lizzie’s turn?) She watched Jane run to her mother every day and kiss her stomach, and feels a bit put out - even though she herself didn’t quite think all that kissing was as fun as Jane thinks.

Her father likes to take her into his library with the dusty books - Lizzie sometimes gets to turn the pages of a book lying on the desk as he reads and trims his funny tiny trees. From him, she learns to love quiet, and reading, and quirkiness. And possibly her habit of rolling her eyes (internally, at least) when her mother bursts in (Jane in tow) panicking about the size of her feet.

When Lydia is born, Lizzie doesn’t know why the new baby has to be so loud. She’s sure she was never that loud - though Jane doesn’t think there’s much of a difference. She’s pouts a bit when Jane tries to make her hold the wiggly sister - and more often than not puts the noisy (though awfully cute) Lydia back in Jane’s lap after a few minutes and toddles off to play with her blocks or with Charlotte or sit in her father’s lap.

Three years later, Lizzie is reading one of her new library books when she hears a rapid series of thuds and a loud squall. She drops the book (quite a nice one, too, about a girl detective and an empty house) and runs to the stairs, to see Lydia, face as red as her hair, windmilling her arms and legs at the bottom.

Lizzie’s stomach feels funny. She runs down the stairs, carefully holding the railing, and tries to lift Lydia. That only makes her louder, but for some reason, the noise doesn’t bother her right now. She manages to get Lydia on her lap (no mean feat, as Lizzie’s not a large girl, and Lydia’s quite well formed for her age), and remembering what Jane sometimes did when Lizzie had bumped her head on her bunkbed. Leaning forward, she gently kisses the back of Lydia’s head. Startled, her sister whips her head back and forth, trying to see what the sensation is. Lizzie feels her stomach settle as Lydia manages to turn around and throw her arms around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand no, this ending is not better. I think it's probably worse, but that's okay – I'm still working on the whole “fic” thing.


End file.
